Java-Sept-Pages-2018

also adopted the practice, as have some airports and
other locations where errant birds can pose serious
hazards. There’s even a program in France to train
eagles to attack terrorist drones.
Threats from Arizona’s skies come mainly in the
form of beaks and bowel movements. “A grackle
had grabbed a lady’s piece of bacon and, I don’t
know why, she decided she wanted it back,” White
explained. “She tried to grab it from the grackle, and
it pecked her finger. I think that was the incident that
got us hired.”
Sonoran works with the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
resort, where they also offer weekly Hawk Talks.
With White currently in Yuma working on an exciting
new project, Knight currently runs the talks, along
with Jeffrey Trainer, Sonoran’s director of operations.
They answer questions, pose for pictures with their
birds and discuss falconry with the general public.
“People don’t get close to birds of prey, especially
owls, because they’re out after dark,” Knight said. “A
lot of people put rodenticides out to get rid of desert
mice and rats and all that. It’s very harmful to the
ecosystem. People don’t think of how that can affect
birds and other animals, so it’s nice to educate them.”
Through their non-profit arm, Sonoran offers
educational programming for schools in low-income
neighborhoods. They usually bring a hawk, a falcon
and an owl and discuss the differences among them.
They educate students about conservation and
potential career paths working with animals or in
farming. For many students, these visits are their first
interactions with such animals.
“Most kids know more about drones right now than
they know about any type of bird of prey,” Trainer
said. White in particular enjoys these settings
because she provides a unique role model, being a
business-owning woman of color – and one who also
happens to have a badass bird perched on her fist.
While White and the other handlers at Sonoran
all have strong feelings about their birds and the
environment, the great-tailed grackles at the Princess
resort in particular seem to have strong feelings in
return, if not exactly reciprocal ones. “They’re a trip,
and they’re smart, too,” Tiffany said of her bird bêtes
noires. “All I have to do is walk through there, and
birds are screaming at me. I’m not kidding – they’ll
actually take things and drop them on my head.”
Sonoran’s largest contract to date, and the reason
for White’s recent move to Yuma, came after a
phone call from Paula Rivadeneira, a food safety
32 JAVA
MAGAZINE
and wildlife extension specialist at the University of
Arizona’s Cooperative Extension in Yuma.
Agriculture added $7.3 billion to Arizona’s economy in
2014. Farming is particularly vital to Yuma, the winter
green capital of the US, which produces 90 percent
of our country’s leafy vegetables between November
and March.
Earlier this year, an E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce
grown there led to five deaths and left hundreds
sick across 35 states. A bacterium primarily living in
animals’ digestive tracts, E. coli is thought to spread
to crops when pests defecate on or near fields. Flood
irrigation then spreads the bacteria.
Farmers use a number of methods to deter birds from
their fields, everything from scarecrows to Mylar
streamers to acoustic cannons, lasers and poisons.
Rivadeneira, who has a PhD in biology, thought there
must be a better way.
“I’m a wildlife biologist, and my goal is really to help
the farmers figure out a more natural and economical
way to keep wildlife out of their fields,” Rivadeneira
said. “In most cases, they’re using lots of different
deterrents, including having people standing in the
fields to keep animals out. That just didn’t make
sense to me.”
While in the past Americans have tended to view
nature and business as diametrically opposed,
Rivadeneira is one of a growing number who believe
natural and human systems can be made to function
in better harmony. She began researching alternative
approaches to pest management when she first
learned about falconry-based pest abatement.
“If the vineyards can do it, why can’t we?”
Rivadeneira asked herself. She called falconers
around the state about her idea, but found only
White willing to talk and help. Rivadeneira asked
White if she would be willing to serve as the
falconer for a grant proposal she was preparing, and
White said yes.
When the Center for Produce Safety awarded them a
$380,000 grant to run a two-year pilot project, White
immediately began packing her bags and assembling
a team of birds. Rivadeneira fixed up an old RV, with
a gift of new tires from a friendly farmer, and set
up the Super Cool Agricultural Testing and Teaching